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Kingda Ka
Kingda Ka is a steel launched roller coaster at Six Flags Great Adventure's Golden Kingdom area. It is currently the tallest roller coaster in the world and the second fastest. Ride history On September 29, 2004, the park announced its plans to build Kingda Ka at a media/roller coaster fans event. The coaster was said to be "the tallest and fastest coaster on Earth", reaching 456ft and 128mph in only 3.5 seconds. By mid-January 2005, the construction on the ride was complete and the attraction had its official opening on May 21, 2005. 2014 remodeling On August 29, 2012, Six Flags CEO Jim Reid-Anderson announced the park's plans for ''Zumanjaro: Drop of Doom, ''a series of three 415-foot drop towers that would replace the park's Rolling Thunder dueling coaster. Jim Reid-Anderson also announced that the drop towers, much like Superman: Escape from Krypton at Six Flags Magic Mountain, would be attached to Kingda Ka's ride structure. The attraction was closed at the start of the 2014 season during ''Zumanjaro: Drop of Doom's ''construction. It later reopened on the Memorial Day weekend for weekend only operations and later fully reopened on July of that same year. Ride synopsis Theme Kingda Ka is themed to a mythical Chinese tiger and the park's Golden Tabby Bengal tiger who lived in a nearby exhibit. Shortly after, he moved to the park's safari ride. The ride also features Nepalese styles. The queue is surrounded and nearly covered by bamboo, which gives the queue a nice jungle effect. While guests wait to board, mythical jungle music plays. Experience When guests finally reach the station and board their train, the vehicle slowly pulls out of the station and into a safety check. After the safety check is cleared, the vehicle pulls into the launch zone. Several heartpounding seconds go by...and then the train is launched 128mph in 3.5 seconds up the top hat hill. The attraction then goes 90 degrees downwards and spirals down. Then, the train takes riders up a 129ft hill before heading into the final brake system. Rollbacks Occasionally, like Top Thrill Dragster, the trains do not completely make it up the track and rollback downwards. It stalls the ride sometimes. The attraction has special brakes to prevent the trains from pulling into the station if a rollback occurs. Trivia Records *When Kingda Ka opened, the ride was the tallest and fastest complete-circuit roller coaster, overtaking the four records Top Thrill Dragster overtook from Fuji-Q Highland's Dodonpa two years before. *The ride has the world's fastest roller coaster drop. *The ride formerly was the fastest coaster in the world, but Ferrari World's Formula Rossa overtook the record in 2010. Statistics *The ride is themed to the park's Golden Tabby Bengal, which had the name Kingda Ka. Awards Golden Ticket Awards: Best New Ride for 2005 *Kingda Ka was runner-up at the Golden Ticket Awards for 2005's Best New Ride. The coaster lost to Hades at Mt. Olympus Water and Theme Park. Golden Ticket Awards Mitch Hawker's Best Roller Coaster Poll Photo Gallery Kingda_Ka.jpg Category:2005 Category:Six Flags Great Adventure Category:Rollercoasters